Public information belongs where the public can find it
Anyone who has spent more than a few minutes searching for information on the Weston County or City of Newcastle websites has probably reached the same conclusion: They need work.
Meeting agendas can be difficult to locate. Important documents are sometimes outdated. Information that should be available with a few clicks can instead become an exercise in frustration.
Recent discussions about website management have highlighted a common explanation: Maintaining a government website is complicated, expensive and requires outside expertise.
That may have been true 20 years ago.
It is not true today.
The debate often gets framed as a choice between spending large amounts of taxpayer money on outside contractors or accepting websites that are rarely updated and difficult to navigate.
But there is a Third Side.
Modern websites are neither difficult nor prohibitively expensive to maintain. More important, the people who work in government offices every day should be able to update them themselves.
The News Letter Journal provides a useful local example.
Every day, our staff adds stories, photographs, videos, public notices, community events and other content to our website. Some days that means 20 or more separate items. Over the course of a year, that amounts to thousands of pieces of content.
We do not operate with unlimited resources. We do not employ a massive technology department. We simply use modern tools designed to make publishing information fast, affordable and accessible.
If a small-town newspaper can upload articles, photographs, videos, public notices and community calendars every day, there is no reason a county or municipal government cannot post meeting recordings, ordinances, resolutions, agendas and other public information.
Storage is no longer the obstacle many people imagine it to be.
The internet does not operate like a filing cabinet with limited drawers. Digital storage is abundant and inexpensive. The cost of hosting documents, videos and public records online has fallen dramatically while the amount of available space has expanded beyond what most local governments could reasonably use.
In other words, the argument that there simply is not enough room online no longer holds up.
Nor does the argument that every update requires a third-party vendor.
Every elected office and government department should have at least one employee capable of posting information, updating pages, removing outdated materials and ensuring that citizens have access to current information. That is not a specialized technical skill anymore. It is a basic administrative function.
The public should not have to wait days or weeks for a contractor to update their local government websites.
At the same time, this is not an argument for spending taxpayer money recklessly on flashy websites loaded with unnecessary features.
That is the other side of the false choice.
The goal is not to create expensive digital monuments. The goal is to provide timely, accurate and easily accessible public information.
A simple website that is updated daily is far more valuable than an elaborate website that sits untouched for months.
The Third Side recognizes that technology should serve transparency.
Local governments regularly encourage citizen engagement. They ask residents to attend meetings, participate in public discussions and stay informed about community issues.
That becomes much easier when the information people need is available online, organized logically and updated promptly.
That is not a luxury. It is an expectation.
The good news is that achieving it has never been easier or more affordable.
The challenge is not technology.
The challenge is deciding that keeping citizens informed is important enough to make it a priority.
If local governments truly believe in transparency and public participation, their websites should reflect it.
The tools already exist. The storage already exists. The affordability already exists.
Now the commitment to use them needs to exist as well.